Learning that people with severe mental illnesses die on average 25 years younger than the general population was cause for two long-time public health partners to merge as one to offer physical and behavioral health services in St. Louis.
Amanda Murphy, founder and CEO of Hopewell Center, and Dwayne Butler, CEO of Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers, announced the two entities now will operate under the leadership of People’s.
Murphy said the two centers have had a long affiliation, with mutual referrals in a spirit of “full cooperation.”
“We’ve had that kind of relationship for a long time, so I think that it’s just an excellent mix or marriage,” Murphy said.
“Also, we are both committed to taking care of persons in the city, and in the northern part of the city and in North County – so we are both committed to that population.”
Conversations about integrating services have been taking place between Murphy and Butler for some time.
“She has spent quite a bit of time helping me understand the community, helping me understand the impact of behavioral health on medical health,” Butler said.
“And through that education process and mentoring process, it just became a very natural progression for me that we see how we bring these two organizations closer to really enhance the service that we give our community.”
The 2007 morbidity and mortality report by the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors rocked the behavioral health community. Dr. Joseph Parks, lead author of the study and medical director for the Missouri Department of Mental Health, said the State was excited about the merger.
“People with severe mental illness die 25 years younger than the general population, and the majority of those deaths are due to chronic medical illnesses like diabetes and heart disease,” Parks said.
“This kind of integration will save lives by improving access to good primary care to the people who need it most.”
Currently, People’s is blending the agencies’ expertise as they seek funding. “When that funding is achieved, we’re going to start building our facilities,” Butler said.
“But we are already beginning to bring our staffs and our organizations closer together so that we begin to educate each other on medical and behavioral health.”
Hopewell Center of St. Louis will be renamed the “Amanda Murphy Hopewell Center.” Its founder and namesake will retire in early January after 29 years of award-winning service.
“We started by thinking it was very important to treat the whole patient. That was kind of foreign at the time. Well, we’ve come to a point now where that is no longer foreign,” Murphy said.
“We also talked about the importance of using a strengths-based model to take care of people. And that is: no matter how ill someone may be when they come, there are some positives within them that we want to find and build on.”
Ida G. Woolfolk, chairman of the board of directors at Hopewell, looked back at the achievements under Murphy’s direction.
“At one time she was a voice in the wilderness – it wasn’t popular when she started this almost 30 years ago,” Woolfolk said.
“And now I look forward to the opportunities that Dwayne Butler and Peoples Health Centers bring to the table. “
